Car Dealers Indicted In Sales-tax Fraud

June 24, 1986|By Dave Schneidman.

Three suburban car dealers have been indicted on charges of cheating the state out of almost $400,000 by failing to file vehicle sales tax returns or filing fraudulent returns, state officials announced Monday.

J. Thomas Johnson, director of the state Department of Revenue, said two Downstate dealers were indicted earlier on similar charges, and he said revenue investigators are looking into the activities of about five others.

Johnson charged that the three suburban dealers indicted ``were deliberately not filing returns or were giving fraudulent information to the secretary of state`s office in order to pocket state tax dollars they had collected from their customers.``

However, Johnson said illegal conduct by dealers apparently is not as widespread as the revenue department anticipated when the investigation began more than two months ago.

``Originally we were looking at about 435 dealers out of the nearly 5,000 new- and used-car dealers throughout the state,`` Johnson said. ``But investigation showed that practically all of the dealers under suspicion had made inadvertent errors when submitting records to the state and had indeed paid all the taxes they were liable for.``

At a news conference in the State of Illinois Center, Johnson and Al Grosboll, assistant secretary of state, said a joint committee has been formed to arrange for computerized data comparisons between the revenue department and the secretary of state`s office to crack down on attempted tax evasion. In addition, the secretary of state`s office has provided the revenue department with access to its vehicle registration file.

The three dealers indicted are:

-- Disabato AMC, Jeep and Renault Inc., which formerly operated at 6550 W. 95th St., Oak Lawn, and its owner, Michael A. Disabato, 60, of 2016 Market St., Blue Island, each named in 20 indictments charging failure to file vehicle sales tax returns and failure to remit $210,000 in taxes owed. Disabato`s business has been closed, and the dealership at that location is under different ownership.